The Fear Is Paralyzing

Over the last several weeks, Quinn had thrown herself into her work, letting it take over her life completely. She got to the arena early for some meetings, and she would stay later than Mario almost every single evening. When she wasn’t at the office, she was at home, still consuming herself with her work. It was the only thing she focused on, compromising other parts of her life.

She hadn’t spent time with Kris in a while. In fact, she hadn’t even talked to him in several days. Normally, this wouldn’t mean anything, but the fact that she hadn’t returned any of his calls or texts had started worrying Kris, wondering what exactly was going on. He wasn’t sure if she wasn’t into him anymore or what, but he knew he needed to talk to her, even if she was ignoring him right now.

It was a rare off day for the team, and Kris had already gone in to the training room to get some treatment done, and he was getting ready to go home and maybe take a nap. However, when he got into his car, he realized he didn’t want to go home. He wanted to confront Quinn face-on, wanting to know what was going on. He had texted her that morning, asking if they could talk, but she hadn’t texted him back. He was ready to go to her apartment when it suddenly dawned on him that he should check her office first before he left the arena.

He got back out of his car, shutting the door, before going back into the arena. He passed a few guys who were on their way out as he walked to the stairs, going up to the third floor. He hadn’t been into the offices since Quinn had begun working there. In fact, he had hardly ever gone into them even before she had started her job. Only serious conversations with the upper staff occurred in these offices, and fortunately for Kris, he hadn’t been a part of those too often.

He noticed the lights were off, and he started to turn back around when he saw a glimpse of light peeking out from underneath the door of Quinn’s office. He opened the front door to the office, walking over to her door. He could hear her moving around inside, and he knocked on the door before opening it up, not waiting on her to answer first. He had been waiting on her long enough, and he wasn’t going to wait anymore.

Quinn spun around when the door opened, seeing Kris standing there. “What are you doing here?” she asked. She looked a little frazzled, and Kris wondered just what exactly she had been doing in there.

“I needed to talk to you,” Kris said slowly, looking around the room. Her desk was covered in papers. Post-it notes were sprawled everywhere. She looked extremely disorganized, and even Quinn herself looked like a mess.

“Kris, now really isn’t a good time,” Quinn began.

Normally Kris would take the hint and just leave, but he didn’t budge this time. “I thought the owner was supposed to make time for their players,” he stated. He knew this was a bold move. Quinn was going to react in one of two ways, and Kris only hoped that it was a positive way with him.

She nodded her head, moving around to make it to the other side of her desk to sit in her chair, while she motioned for him to sit down as well. “So what do you need to discuss?” she asked in an extremely professional manner.

Kris looked at her curiously, wondering why she was acting like this with him of all people. Wasn’t he her boyfriend? “Us,” he said simply.

Quinn sighed. “This isn’t the time or place for this,” she told him.

“Then you tell me when the time is right,” Kris replied. “Because I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for days, and you haven’t been returning any of my calls or texts. Did I do anything wrong? I thought we were doing well, and then all of a sudden, you like disappear,” he explained.

She saw the look on his face, and she knew he deserved an explanation. “I’ve just been throwing myself into work, you know?” she tried to explain, but she knew it wasn’t good enough for anyone, let alone Kris. “I’m sorry,” she apologized sincerely. “It’s not like I’m ignoring you on purpose. I’m just trying to be better at my job. Feel like I deserve to be the owner.”

“So you’re just ignoring every other aspect of your life?” Kris questioned, the words coming out a little more harshly than he had intended them to, and he noticed the taken aback look on Quinn’s face.

“Kris,” Quinn began, sighing. “It’s not like that,” she argued.

Kris crossed his arms over his chest. “Actually it is, Quinn. I understand giving your everything for your job, I do it every day. But, I don’t ignore the people that I care about. Were you ever going to text me back? Or call me? Or were you just going to let our relationship go altogether?” he wondered aloud.

“Stop it!” Quinn said loudly, causing Kris to instantly quiet up. “It’s not like that!” she said with more emphasis, hoping he believed her this time. “I’ve just been busy.”

“Well you really need to learn to prioritize your life. Because while you’re giving your everything to your job, you’re losing me,” he said, standing up from the chair, beginning to walk out on Quinn.

“What are you saying, Kris?” she asked. She and Kris had never really fought before, so she didn’t really know what this all meant. She didn’t know if Kris just got pissed off and stormed out but then would come back around a few hours later. Or did he storm out and never come back. She wasn’t sure either way.

Kris didn’t say anything right away. He wasn’t too sure what he was saying to her. He knew he was upset, and he was bound to say something he didn’t mean at this point. “You heard what I said,” he stated.

“It sounds like you’re trying to make me choose between you and my job. And, that’s not fair, Kris,” she told him.

“I think you just made your decision,” Kris said quietly, turning around and leaving her office, while Quinn continued to just sit there, speechless.

She continued to sit there for several minutes afterwards, not moving at all. She was frozen, wondering what just happened and how exactly it had happened. Had Kris really just broken up with her? Just because she had been working so hard lately. She grabbed her phone, calling the only person she could talk about this with.

“Hey, Quinn,” she heard Claire’s cheery voice on the other side.

“Claire, I need to talk to you,” Quinn stated.

“What’s wrong?”

Quinn was quiet for a moment before replying. “I think Kris just broke up with me.”

***

Kris had thought about going home after meeting with Quinn and walking out on her, but at the last minute, he turned down a different street, ending up at a bar. He was on his fifth beer before he texted his teammates, asking them to join him. Sidney Crosby was the first one to show up, finding an already tipsy Kris at the bar by himself. He sat down next to him, clamping a hand on his back as he asked, “What’s up, buddy?”

“Eh, you know,” Kris shrugged, not really answering his question.

“How many of these have you had?” Sidney asked with a bit of a laugh. It wasn’t like Kris to get drunk in the middle of the season. Sure, Kris was just like any one of the other guys on the team, and he drank from time to time, but he never actually got drunk. That impaired his game during the season, and Kris wouldn’t dare do anything to hinder his performance. So for Sidney to find Kris in a bar right now, already having drunk so much, was a surprise.

“Eh, I don’t know,” Kris said, once again shrugging.

“What’s going on?” Sidney asked.

“I think I just broke up with my girlfriend,” Kris mumbled.

Sidney stared at him for a moment, wondering if he had heard Kris correctly. “Girlfriend?” Sidney finally asked, and Kris nodded his head. “Since when do you have a girlfriend?” he asked. He had never heard of Kris dating any girl seriously lately, and he was sure that no one else on the team had heard either.

“I don’t anymore,” Kris muttered.

“What happened?” Sidney asked, ordering a beer for himself when the bartender walked by.

“She’s all into her work,” Kris said. “That’s all she cares about. She won’t even text me back.”

“Dude, that’s rough,” Sidney nodded his head. This was one of the reasons he didn’t date during the season. He didn’t want to have to worry about girl problems in the middle of the season when his head should be in the game. “Maybe you’re better off without her, though, if that’s the case,” he said, trying to be supportive. However, these weren’t the words Kris wanted to hear.

He had been happier in the last couple of months than he had in a long time. Quinn had made him happy, but the fact that she was consuming all of her time with her work irritated him. He understood how important it was to her, it always had been important to her. In fact, that was the reason they had gotten together in the first place, when he had been teaching her the sport of hockey. But, Quinn had always been able to balance her work life with her personal life. But, recently, it seemed like Kris didn’t even exist to her. But, maybe he had been too hard on her and had given up too quickly.

“Maybe,” Kris mumbled, taking another drink of his beer.

“You know you’re able to focus everything on hockey now,” Sidney said, trying to make the most out of Kris’s situation.

Kris nodded his head. “Yeah.”

Little did Sidney know, Quinn was part of his job. He was bound to see her at the very least at home games. He wasn’t able to escape her. And, he needed to figure everything out quickly. Because if she started to affect his game, he was in big trouble.